Artist's Impression of the Magnetar in the Extraordinary Star Cluster Westerlund 1 (IMAGE)

ESO

Artist's Impression of the Magnetar in the Extraordinary Star Cluster Westerlund 1

Caption

This artist's impression shows the magnetar in the very rich and young star cluster Westerlund 1. This remarkable cluster contains hundreds of very massive stars, some shining with a brilliance of almost one million suns. European astronomers have for the first time demonstrated that this magnetar -- an unusual type of neutron star with an extremely strong magnetic field -- was formed from a star with at least 40 times as much mass as the Sun. The result presents great challenges to current theories of how stars evolve, as a star as massive as this was expected to become a black hole, not a magnetar.

Credit

ESO/L. Calçada

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